Dear John,
We have put together some thoughts on just how hard a journey it is going to be for Bernie Sanders to go from socialist insurgent to leader of the Democratic Party to defeating Donald Trump this fall. This journey would be hard for any politician, but it is going to be particularly difficult for a 78 year old whose health is in question.
The cold hard reality is that Sanders has never been a Democrat, has never led a Democratic ticket, has never won over general election voters in a swing state, has the support of very few Democratic elected officials, has positions at odds with the vast majority of Democrats in Congress, and has never faced the modern GOP media machine. His domestic program is shockingly unserious and his foreign policy views are hard to defend. Given where he is starting from, it is just hard to see how Sanders is able to put it all together and win this thing this fall. The degree of political difficulty is just too high.
The explosion of opposition to his praise of Castro from prominent Democratic leaders is an early sign of the troubles Sanders will have in bringing the Party along behind him. It is no exaggeration to say that he may have just put the most important general election swing state out of play for Democrats, and for what? That Trump, Russia, and Fox News are all working to promote Bernie should also be another big flashing warning sign about the dangers of his candidacy.
Yesterday, we shared our thoughts about how Joe Biden is the only Democrat left in the race in a strong enough position to beat Bernie. We still believe that today, and hope that some of the other candidates in the “Establishment” lane – including Mike Bloomberg – withdraw from the race before Super Tuesday.
Feedback to all this is welcome of course.
Sincerely, Simon
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